A Musical Approach to Buckets, bottles, and pails..

This page is designed as an aid for music teachers
and students who are using homemade materials in their music study.

In the wrong hands, buckets and bottles are merely
the source of noise. The seat of creativity and musicality is
in the BRAIN..

Music
is the art of choosing the exact right sound at exactly the right
time.

Therefore, really pay attention. Use ALL the dynamics
of the instruments, from soft to loud. Natural music fits the
place in which it occurs. The place or sound space you play in
is part of the music. They should fit together if possible.

All options, from hands to thick sticks to thin,
and mallets of various materials, and scrapers, and so on, should
be tried. Pay close attention to the sounds you are making.

Ask Yourself

What percussion
music would fit the mood, the atmosphere, in

A playground field?

A downtown sidewalk?

An apartment living room?

A courtyard?

Outside the stadium on game day?

On a front porch at sundown?

We love the cheap white LOEWS buckets, made by Encore
Plastics, because the lid fits so tightly on top that it actually
creates another head, a 4th down from the pitch on the other side.
It isn't very loud, but for indoors, living room, and other reflective
situations, or miked up, it works fine.

The video examples we have included have largely
made use of this lower head for the video examples in this article,
miking it closely.

If we are going to play on the street, without mikes,
we'll bring a skin head, even if it is a skin bucket or a bushel
basket drum. this holds down the low end better for us.

Alter Your Buckets

When playing the standard way, on the 'bottom of the bucket with
two sticks, the lip around the edge yields the high sound, a nice
contrast to the 'head' surface. When one tries to play with the
hands on the bottoms, however, this lip gets in the way, and can
really damage the hands.

SO, what we have done lately is to sand down
HALF of the rim, flush with the bottom of the bucket, and PRESTO!
the bucket is now a usable hand drum, not unlike a cajon. The
volume is not high when playing by hand, but that isn't always
a bad thing. In some spaces, it is perfect. We can still turn
the bucket around and play on the side with the rim when we are
using sticks. Buckets in the videos accompanying this article
are altered in this manner. We also put natural skins on buckets
and other containers, and highly recommend it. This is quite cost
effective, and teaches the basics of making skinned drums at the
same time. See the article about coffee
can drums.

Experiment with different sticks and mallets, and with using
all hands, one stick and one hand, or two sticks. Remember that
wood is tougher than plastic, and be aware that thick wood sticks
WILL break through your bucket eventually, whereas some plastic
alternatives offer better durabuility for the drum. Ideas: Those
short whiffle ball bats from the dollar store; the plastic bone
that came with Mike Pieburn's caveman Halloween costume..

I've been playing on the street off and on for many years
now. Back in 1962, I watched my uncle Gene
Williams, on the night time streets of New York
City, playing a restaurant sized Dentler's Potato
Chip can, back when the tin cans were thicker
and the metal sounded great, probably better
than plastic does today. . Read the story.

Bucket Drumming 101

Welcome
to the world of Bucket Drumming, a 20th and a 21st century urban
manifestation of an age old phenomenon. After all, street
musicians have been around for thousands of years, and
down through history, we percussionists have selected materials
and made instruments from what was available in their our immediate
surroundings. And one thing we definitely have on hand, in this
age of petroleum products, is plastic containers..

Not everyone loves bucket drumming, however. In fact,
many people find it obnoxious.. Let's face it,
most examples of bucket drumming nowadays are show-offy, "look-at-me!"
displays of speed and technique, as much as can be mustered.

The most famous 'bucket drummer' video guy on the
web, Larry
Wright is good example of this. His original YouTube
video has over half a million views on it. We know what he does
is pretty intense, we are just not sure how long we want to watch
him do it. He has lots of fans. Maybe we are just getting old.
:-D He plays fast and loud very well. Even we can see,
after a few hours, how it would become tiresome to nearby residents
and business owners.

Technique CAN be exciting, however. Our favorites
in this genre are groups like the Chicago
Bucket Boys, a highly talented group. They apparently
come from the drums corps/ rudimental school of drumming, which
is great..We like Funk
Plastic too, up in Seattle, a little more R&B based,
with a backbeat.

We checked out CBABA
, a street player who uses a different approach, with a bigger,
shopping cart based rig, with glass bottles and lots of different
shapes, not just buckets..

But we longed for something more laid back, more atmospheric,
more natural, Layered, I don't know, and then..

Then we stumbled upon this video of these
young kids in Zambia, and to us, THEY have the right
idea. For them, and for us, it isn't a competition, nor a show off
session. It's about the groove. They are playing with one hand and
one stick, and the music is ON. These musicians have real grace,
despite their young age. Their concept of music grows naturally
from the Zambian culture they have grown up in. They are playing
parts, layers. Each part is simple, but they sum up so nicely. We
wish more bucket drummers thought this way.

(OPTIONALWEB LINK
SIDE TRIPS)

Watch
the Zambian grown ups, not on buckets but on
skinned drums.) Notice how their music contains some of
the same parts as the Gambian kids in the other video..

Bucket
Drummer, New York City Subway, New Year's Eve 2004/2005.
this one is worth watching. The subway in New York is so
bizarre New Year's Eve; Rated PG-13 for language. There's
a djembe player sit in at about 3 minutes and by 4:18, he's
playing some very cool triplet stuff. Notice the change
in his environment from when he set up, early in the evening,
to when he was packing up, and everyone was getting on the
subway going home.

Three 'easy' 4 part rhythms
for buckets, shakers, and pipe caps.

We present here, in order of difficulty, three simplified
arrangements, based on traditional rhythms , in versions
which are generally playable by early intermediate students from
4th grade to adult, in small bucket drumming groups. They make a
good starting point for improvisation. Included are related exercises
to develop creativity and furnish material for developing spontaneous
composition skills. (When drummers jam, they are composing together,
as they go along.)

Please understand: If you learn these rhythms as shown, on the
buckets, this does NOT mean that you 'know Bomba' or Afoxe
or Rumba. It isn't quite that simple. Any one of these
three rich cultures could take up a lifetime of study. an authentic
Bomba drum , Atabaque, and Tumbadora are much richer and fuller
than a bucket. Take the time to look into these instruments.

Profound thanks are due to the parent cultures for giving these
vital rhythms to the rest of the world for us to to enjoy. So be
it. To learn more about the source cultures, surf the terms at YouTube.
For starters, here are three good video links.

Now, get out your buckets, a pair of thin sticks, and
a pipe cap or two. Make a simple shaker from some beans or peas
and a plastic bottle. That's all you'll need.

About the notation - When playing with two hands,
c is a closed note and o is an open note. When playing with sticks,
all played notes are all represented by x. We designed these rhythms
to be used with buckets, which, like the Lowes buckets, have two
available pitches, one on either side. If you are not using these
buckets, simply choose your buckets so that one has a higher and
one a lower pitch. A rubbermaid 16 gallon utility tub will work
for the low drum. Play it with a boomwhacker or other fat plastic
beater, if you need volume, but better yet, with the hands.

Bomba Sicá (One of the main types of bomba)

1...2...3...4... (the downbeats)
c.co.oo.c.co.oo. low bucketxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
'gua gua' , the ride, rim/side of bucket, sticks
x..x..x...x.x... clave, see below for more on this partx.xx.xx.x.xx.xx.
(alternate guagua part, two sticks)XxxxXxxxXxxxXxxx
(shaker)

Watch the
video

The bottom part is very recognizable and works great as a groove
for others to play over. Simply add the "gua gua" part,(traditionally
played on a section of Bamboo with two thn sticks), and you are
grooving. The 3rd person can improvise to his/her heart's content.

Step 1: First practice session is learning
the parts.Use revolving parts method. player D is finished
improvising, takes over the guagua, and the guagua persontakes over
the clave parts, then the old clave pattern person is the new improvisor.

Gua Gua Variations: Once you have the basic parts
down, you can begin to experiment. Doing the guagua part, practice
varying the area of the bucket that you are playing on. Experiment
to see how the feel is changed when you move the ride, to the sides,
or the rim, or elsewhere, with the tips, then the shaft of the stick.
Volume is another variable. PLay one bar loud and three quiet, or
two bars loud and two quiet or whatever. Different sticking combinations
can be added, each with a characteristic feel, so you see, there
is ample room for stretching out and widening them spectrum of available
I and I choices. extend it to the playing of accents in different
places. different stickings give a different feel as well. these
are some possibilities.

Often the gua gua player
will not play a steady ride, but rather the the following pattern

x.xx.xx.

How is the feel affected by using brushes, or very thin or thick
sticks? Playing on the side? the rim. All these are compositional
elements, to be decided upon by the players or the arranger. use
the sound-syllables available to you, and your bucket will speak
accordingly.

The Clave Pattern as a Compositional Tool: Claves,
the instrument, are not used in traditional Bomba. (side trip: watch
traditional Bomba.) The pattern itself, however, is useful here,
played on the rims or elsewhere. It acts as a flexible compositional
element, for students to use as a starting point for experimentation.
For example, if one alternates the figure with a measure of rest,
it acts as a call, to be responded to in various ways.

Thus (the
call) is followed
by a space for improvisation)

1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&ax..x..x...x.x...................

Exercise: Really learning to use the elements of the clave
as a compositional tool

1. Play the clave pattern, and vary the tones but keep the pattern
consistent. (Also practice this playing the pattern every other
time. If you have two players playing this part, can then have one
play in the space created by the other. ).

2. Begin by playing the clave pattern, then remove or take out
a single note from the pattern , then another, then another. Add
them back in, but not in the same order that you removed them.

The high bucket part has
a variation {in red
and blue} which can itself have many different versions.
The low and high pitches of the agogos may be switched, or the pattern
may begin halfway through, i.e. be reversed.

Watch the video

Rumba, the foundation of Cuba folkloric music

cc.cc.O.cc.cc.O.
Low bucket, two hands
x.xx.x.xx.x.xx.x cascara two thin sticks on rims
x..x...x..x.x... clave, played on flat top of pipe cap.
.......uD....... Shaker (u for up D for down)